Luke Edwards is The Telegraph's North East sports reporter.

Jose Enrique Wants What's Best For Him Not Newcastle United

He has criticised the club’s transfer policy, accused members of the board of lying, implied the new signings are not good enough to replace those who have left and argued Newcastle United will never challenge for honours again under the present regime – just a wild stab this but I don’t think Jose Enrique wants to stay at St James’s Park do you?

To be fair to the Spaniard, his comments on Twitter over the weekend were born out of months of frustration; months of being kept away from the media because the club knew he would say something controversial; months of fearing all the good work that had been in the club’s recovery from relegation was being undone; months of pent up anger unleashed in a few 140 character posts on the world wide web!

But just as newspapers and other media organisations are having to adapt to the rise of social networking sites and their ability to make, as well as spread, the news, so too now are football clubs.

Enrique, probably bored on Newcastle’s pre-season tour of America and wondering why none of the Champions League clubs his agent had said wanted to sign him have made a bid, decided it was time to get his views across.

He might not have even thought about it for very long. It may have just been a spur of the moment decision in a hotel room on the other side of the Atlantic, he may have stupidly thought nobody would be able to read them if he wrote in Spanish, but for me Enrique’s comments on Twitter were calculated and deliberate.

He is in danger of being stuck at a club he no longer wants to play for and in attacking owner Mike Ashley and Managing Director Derek Llambias, he hopes he can speed up his exit.
He has attracted attention to himself and his, erm, “plight”. He has made it clear to his employers that he does not like them or their business plan and he has played the role of the jilted footballer perfectly.

Enrique wants what the fans wants, or so he wants everyone to believe. He wants a bold, ambitious Newcastle United, thrilling the world with its attacking football. He wants Ashley to spend millions on the best new player available, not merely land the best free agents. He wants the board to tell the truth.

His comments undoubtedly strike a chord with thousands on Tyneside. There is frustration at the lack of ambition from the owner, there is still resentment senior club officials once admitted they lied as a public relations exercise when Kevin Keegan was manager, there is still a strong anti-Ashley mentality at a club which has made under-achievement a trademark.

Yet, Enrique has also over egged the pudding some what. Newcastle fans are blindly loyal, but they are not blindly stupid.

They know Enrique has been offered a new contract and they know he turned it down. They know Enrique once said he wanted to spend the rest of his career at Newcastle, comments made when the club weren’t even in the Premier League, let alone challenging for a top six place, and they now know he never meant it.

They know he is an ambitious footballer who first started making noises about leaving this summer long before Andy Carroll was sold to Liverpool for £35m in January, but when the prospect of a new contract was first raised 12 months ago.

They know he is a very talented left-back who has improved dramatically from the slight, out-of-his-depth youngster who arrived from Spain and couldn’t get a game in his first season on Tyneside.

But, ultimately, they know most footballers want what is best for them, not the football club they once pledged loyalty to.

They have seen this happen before at St James’s Park and they have seen it happen to others like them, just look at Aston Villa and Stewart Downing.

They know Ashley isn’t perfect, they know he has made mistakes and they know they are hamstrung by his lack of spending , but they also know they will have a football club to support long after both he and Enrique have become nothing more than memories.

Enrique has been disrespectful to the club, he has been disrespectful to new signings Yohan Cabaye, Demba Ba and Sylvain Marveaux and as popular as he is, that was a mistake.

Whether he had said it on Twitter or an interview with a newspaper, the impact was the same. He has attracted unwanted attention to a club which does soap operas better than most.

He has given the rest of the country a stick to beat Newcastle with, he has made others laugh at a mess he has created.

Newcastle fans will criticise their club until they are blue in the face, they will moan and they will vilify, but they will not let others do it for them. Not even one of their own players and not even when he might have a point if it is a self-serving one.